Tickets are : General Admission $20, VIP – $35 (VIP seating and special gift) and limited Kupuna seating $15 ( 65 and over). Tickets available Kauai Japanese Cultural Society, Inc. members or 822-5353, Scottys, and Kauai Music and Sound.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Sister State Pact with Hiroshima Prefecture and State of Hawaii, 1997-2017, Kauai Japanese Cultural Society will feature Orizuru For Peace Project at this year’s Matsuri Kauai Festival on Saturday, Oct. 7 at Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall in Lihue.

The project will invite people attending the festival to help create 1,000 Orizuru (paper cranes) made with origami papers which will be displayed as a centerpiece at the event. In advance, students at many Kauai schools will fold the cranes prior to the event and will be presented at the event on Oct. 7.
1000 origami papers, donated by Kauai’s four sister cities as well as friendship cities and cultural organizations in Japan, will be provided for people who wants to be part of the project.

Also, a special booth to highlight Hiroshima and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum with posters, books, postcards, maps and other collaterals will be on display as part of Orizuru For Peace Project which hopes to draw people to bring attention to Hiroshima, The City of Global Peace and its ongoing mission to promote global peace through abolition of nuclear-free world. The project would also like to encourage people on Kauai with ancestral roots in Hiroshima to come and sign up for the Hiroshima Kauai Club which is being planned for the near future.

In July 2017, Kauai Mayor Bernard P. Carvalho Jr.; James Kealalio of County Parks & Recreation and Art Umezu, County’s Japan market specialist accompanied Kauai Yankees Little League team for their 1st Japan Goodwill Tour to play against Little League teams in Iwaki City (Sister City) and Hiroshima.

While in Mayor Carvalho and Kauai Yankees were invited to courtesy visits with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki who mentioned about the 20th anniversary of Hiroshima-Hawaii Sister State.

Official delegations from Iwaki City; Suo Oshima and Ishigaki (all Kauai’s sister cities) will be represented at this year’s Matsuri Kauai Festival with Ishigaki group’s first time to the festival. Matsuri Kauai Festival is free and open to the public from 9 am-3 pm.

ORIZURU (Folding Paper Crane)

‘Ori or oru’ means to fold and ‘zuru or tsuru’ is a Japanese crane. Orizuru is a crane folded into its shape with a traditional Japanese paper called ‘origami’ which means folding paper. Orizuru is a representation of the Japanese red-crowned crane that is referred as the “Honored Lord Crane” in Japanese culture and history.

A thousand orizuru strung together is called ‘senba-zuru’ meaning ‘thousand cranes’. It is said that a thousand cranes need to be made in order for a wish to come true.

Sadako Sasaki was only two years old when an atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima on August 6, 1956, near her home. Sadako was one of the most recognized ‘hibaku-sha’ (bomb-affected person). She is remembered through the story of the one thousand origami cranes (orizuru) she folded before her death, and is to this day a symbol of the innocent victims of nuclear warfare.

Ms. Sadako Sasaki

Born: January 7, 1943 in Hiroshima

Atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima: August 6, 1945

Died: October 25, 1955 at age 12 at Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima

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Sun, 07 May 2017 09:08:30 +0000http://kauaijcs.org/?p=1358Kauai Japanese Cultural Society and Kapaa Hongwanji Women’s Assn. will have a cooking Demo on May 13, 2017 from 10:30 a.m. at the Kapaa Hongwanji Social Hall.

Learn to roll a futomaki. Demo on Shira ae (tofu salad).
Sample of futomaki and take one home that you roll. Sample of the shira ae too.
Cost is $10 for ingredients.
Call 822-5353 for reservations by May 9, 2017 or send to this email address.
Please pass this to who might be interested in learning to roll futomaki ( jumbo sushi).

On April 13 ,2017 from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Kauai Community College Office of Continuing Education and Training Bldg. room 106 c/d

During the 1885 to 1924 immigration period of sugar plantation laborers from Japan to Hawaiʻi, more than 200,000 Japanese, mostly men, made the long journey by ship to Hawaiʻi.

As it became apparent that they would never return to Japan, many of the men sent for brides to join them in their adopted home. More than 20,000 of these “picture brides” immigrated from Japan and Okinawa to Hawaiʻi to marry husbands whom they knew only through photographs exchanged between them or their families.

Based on Barbara Kawakami’s first-hand interviews with sixteen of these women, Picture Bride Stories is a poignant collection that recounts the diverse circumstances that led them to marry strangers, their voyages to Hawaiʻi, the surprises and trials that they encountered upon arriving, and the lives they led upon settling in a strange new land. Many found hardship, yet persevered and endured the difficult working and living conditions of the sugarcane plantations for the sake of their children. As they acclimated to a foreign place and forged new relationships, they overcame challenges and eventually prospered in a better life.

The stories of the issei women exemplify the importance of friendships and familial networks in coping with poverty and economic security. Although these remarkable women are gone, their legacy lives on in their children, grandchildren, and succeeding generations.

The program will include a screening of excerpts of interviews with some of the women featured in Picture Bride Stories that were conducted with Barbara Kawakami for various segments of the Rice & Roses television series.

These interviews presentation is courtesy of the Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR), University of Hawaiʻi – West Oahu. Chris Conybeare, Producer/Writer, Joy Chong-Stannard, Director/Editor.”

This program was made possible with the generous support of a grant from The Hiroaki, Elaine & Lawrence Kono Foundation and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i.

RSVP March 1,2017 ( 822-5353.or pkgshim3@hawaiiantel.net..members who belong to a group please RSVP to your group leader). Bring a friend or anyone interested in the Japanese Cultural Society. (No shows- the restaurant will charge $30.00 per no show )